


5 times people thought trafalgar law was straight and 1 time someone thought he was on a date with his sister

by vbnorsr



Category: One Piece
Genre: 5 Times, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Comedy, Heteronormativity, Introvert Law, LGBTQ Themes, Other, Trafalgar D. Water Law-centric, bonney has binge eating disorder, not a ship fic for once, one-sided tashigi/law
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-24
Updated: 2018-07-14
Packaged: 2019-05-13 09:32:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14746295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vbnorsr/pseuds/vbnorsr
Summary: Law-centric modern AU drabbles about exactly what the title says it's about.In honor of June's LGBT Pride month 2018.





	1. Jury Duty

**Author's Note:**

> modern au. only partially crack. written because im pissed about heteronormativity and also because as a gay man i want to be friends with women and do things with them in public without it being assumed that we’re a couple.

The first time it happens he’s in court, having been assigned to jury duty on a fine Tuesday afternoon and only accepting because he is legally obligated to.

He had to cancel several appointments to be doing this, the implications of which being kind of scary because Law is a heart surgeon and peoples’ lives rest on his availability and work. Even though Law is a man grounded by trauma in human mortality and is vaguely aware that he lacks the amount of empathy necessary to care immensely if a stranger dies, he’s annoyed by the amount of phone calls he had to make in order to cancel said appointments. Part of the reason he went to school to be a surgeon was because 90% of the people he would be interacting with while working would be unconscious.

He and the rest of the citizens present are gathered in a loose crowd around the gargantuan oak doors to the courtroom, waiting for the judge to arrive and let them in. Some of the attendees are conversing amongst one another, making small talk or posing currently unanswerable questions about the case at hand, but Law is having none of that. Instead, he makes to reach for the pocket containing his phone, fully intent on scrolling aimlessly through news articles and scholarly essays of interest in silence for the next ten to fifteen minutes.

Unexpectedly, someone bumps into Law’s back, causing his phone -- having been halfway tugged from the pocket of his jeans -- to slip from his fingers and tumble to the floor, making a soft blunt noise against the tile. Law scowls, about to turn around to see what idiot did that with the purpose of glaring at them, only to recognize the person as Jewlery Bonney, a woman part of his graduating class from highschool.

Not an extremely sentimental person and also having no interest in reliving any portion of anything he may or may not have done as a teenager, he swiftly turns back around, but apparently it’s too late. The woman has placed a hand on his shoulder and he can practically hear the smile lilting her voice as she asks, “Law, is that you? How’ve you been?”

He is upset, he wants to go home, his 900 dollar phone is still on the fucking ground, and now he is expected to spend the next _fifteen minutes_ engaging in conversation with a person who has been a stranger to him since the day he walked out of his highschool’s doors with a diploma. Law takes a deep, long breath in through his nose, counting backwards from ten in his head. He knows from the course he took on evolutionary science in college that humans are biologically social creatures, but he considers himself a special case.

He turns around amicably, then, and Bonney proceeds to catch him up on her relatively recent diagnosis of and struggle with binge eating disorder, which Law would usually be interested in if he were reading about it in an article instead of hearing it directly from another human being. 

For the most part Law doesn’t talk and only gives the vaguest possible answers to any questions about how he’s been doing for the past decade. Bonney doesn’t seem especially surprised when Law tells her that he’s now a surgeon (he’d apparently been far too interested in frog dissection to have ended up anything but that or “like, a serial killer, I guess”) but she does seem proud of him, a sentiment Law feels mostly detached from and confused by.

He can’t remember being especially _close_ to Bonney, or anyone in highschool for that matter, beyond the strange posse of kids in hats and perpetual winter clothing who considered him their leader (who he never even really considered friends, but wasn’t bothered by enough to tell them off). That’s why the fact that Bonney recognizes him -- better yet, wants to talk to him about her newly found life as a functioning adult member of society -- and is smiling at him like an old friend is confusing him more than anything else. What had he done to earn so much of her nostalgic favor?

He almost came to the conclusion that Bonney must be looking for someone to brag to about her recent accomplishments, but her accounts of what life has been like for her recently are honest and not skewed to her favor in any way Law can pick out. She talks about her struggles (such as the eating disorder) and her downfalls (flunking college and struggling to find a place of employment that would actually hire her given her credentials) as much as she talks about her achievements. She’s not posturing at all.

Also, despite the way that she carries the conversation in Law’s silence, Bonney does seem genuinely interested in how Law’s been spending his time, and gives credit where credit is due (and given that Law is only giving her very short, undetailed answers, she’s actually putting effort in to do that). This is as equal of a conversation as it can be when Law is trying his absolute hardest to not carry it.

Perhaps it’s that realization that causes the surgeon to pity her enough to put a bit more effort into the remaining eight minutes of their chat.

The remaining time they have together passes smoothly, Law giving her full sentences in response to her instigations, which she doesn’t seem to especially notice. He’s no more interested in the conversation now than he was going into it, but if this is how he’s going to pass his time currently, there’s nothing he can do but take advantage of the distraction it offers.

They’re still talking when the judge cuts through the crowd and eventually reaches their side of it, slightly late if Law’s estimation of the time passed is astute, and looking as if he hasn’t had the best of days. This wouldn’t bother Law as much if the judge hadn’t stopped right in front of them, very obviously sizing them up and down. As such, Bonney stops talking.

“Are you two here together?” the man inquires, which is a reasonable question. Jury duty letters specifically go out to people as random as possible with as few connections to each other as they can, to keep the results of their rulings fair, unbiased and legal.

“We went to highschool together.” Law explains, as such, “We were just catching up.”

“Okay. Fine.” the judge spits. “If you plan on spending your time here flirting with your highschool sweetheart, don’t. This is a serious assignment with serious results. Behave appropriately.”  
Then, the judge keeps walking, towards the front of the crowd to open the doors.

Law furrows his brow. There’s a lot to process in what was just said to him, and they certainly weren’t the only people chatting amongst themselves to pass time. Was he seriously just chastised by a man of the law for absolutely no reason?

Bonney turns to Law with an awkward smile, and places a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Hey, it was nice talking to you, though. Maybe we’ll see eachother again some time?”

He doesn’t plan on it. At all. Nonetheless, Law nods politely, still confused from both the conversation that had transpired and trying to process everything he’d just been needlessly accused of by an authority figure in the span of just a few sentences.

He turns to pick up the phone he’d dropped as Bonney moves with the rest of the crowd towards the now open courtroom doors, only to find that his phone isn’t there anymore.

This is not a good day.


	2. An Earnest Crush

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this. _this._  
>  i made this fic for pride month but pride month was awful for me, positively terrible, and i was in the hospital (not injured, mental health reasons) for most of it as well so obviously i had no access to google docs or ao3 to continue writing it
> 
> by the time i came back june had passed but, determined, i came back to my doc for this fic to finish it up anyway and... i found that my storyboard for the second chapter (this one) was too vague and needed to be mostly overhauled, and that my jotted ideas for the third chapter were out of character, too similar to the second, and too nsfw for the tone of the fic; i'll need to redo that one too.
> 
> i also found that the way i'd written tashigi initially was oddly... sexist? and i was a tad disgusted with myself as a token male fanfiction writer so i rewrote most everything tashigi had done. word to the wise -- never trample over one marginalized group for the sake of empowering another
> 
> in order to get this chapter out just a few days after i left the hospital, new storyboard and all, i had to ask my friend lou at nbspandam for help, and help he did. so thank you, lou! and thanks, gender communism! happy late pride month, everyone

The second time it happens it’s late at night, and he’s working. The ER had been low on graveyard staff for whatever reason, so he’d been called in as a substitute, just in case someone needed random heart surgery at 3 AM. It could always happen, with the unpredictability of the human body and the unhealthy lifestyle most people lived nowadays that routinely put heavy strain on Law’s favorite organ.

People came and left, and usually it wasn’t a huge deal. Someone broke a bone or was having concerning chest pains -- all things that absolutely were not Law’s problem due to his job title, and could be easily taken care of by the other doctors present who specialized in such things.

He ended up not being assigned any patients that night, which to him was a huge relief, even if admittedly he’d rather be sleeping at home that night than hanging aimlessly around his place of work. Even so, he felt oddly at ease in the hospital -- a place where no matter what issue arose, he would usually have the training necessary to solve it. It felt secure, in a way.

Eventually, he had to go to the break room for coffee. He passes someone making copies of documents at the printer, finding himself relaxed somewhat by the familiar drone of the machine. It’s dark outside, that much he can see out the window in the room with blinds pulled half-open. From there he can make out the vaguest hint of city lights, the artificial night sky that made up for the lack of stars presenting themselves as they would in a more rural area.

He goes through the motions of pouring a cup of coffee, made slightly harder by the fact that the current pot is nearly empty and cold, so it needs to be emptied out, and more needs to be brewed. The person making copies at the printer is still there, even though Law is certainly taking his sweet time doing what he came here to do.

He doesn’t notice for a long time anything specific about the other employee in the room, mostly because he’s not especially paying attention to them. He glances over at one point and notices that it’s not someone he recognizes, for one; so it must be an intern, a substitute, or otherwise someone who was a part of the staff only temporarily for any number of reasons (occasionally the hospital had groups of medical majors from the city’s university come over to witness surgeries and other such procedures).

By the time Law has finished making his drink, and turns to leave the room, to his shock he realizes that the intern has been staring at him slack-jawed with a face an eerie tone of crimson. This confuses him, mostly, but he doesn’t have enough time to ask her what she’s doing -- she blurts out a loud “Sorry!” that’s very nearly a shout, and turns sharply on her heel to scurry out of her room, fresh copies rustling loudly in her arms.

After that, the mysterious intern was somehow always in the break room with Law. In fact, the esteemed Dr. Trafalgar could hardly catch a break without spotting her doing busy work at the table (Working? On break? An intern, working during break?) or prodding the coffee machine. It was either that the intern’s timetable had somehow miraculously aligned with his, such as the planets may have when Jesus of Nazareth was born, or there was some foul play at hand.

Nonetheless, it was too innocent at the time for Law to consider, presently, approaching her to ask about it. What could he possibly accuse her of -- having a similar schedule? It wasn’t like Law currently had any evidence any which way, and asking her could well reveal that she’d recently been given a change of agenda.

It wasn’t as if Law was being bothered by her either, other than being mildly unsettled by her presence. She wasn’t making any effort to pester him beyond slightly-possibly being his brand new stalker. Once, actually, Law was extremely relieved to find that Tashigi had not shown up to break that afternoon, and was just about to sit down with his coffee when she bounded into the room, stack of papers in hand as ever, obviously having been held back somewhere and hence just late coming to her break.

On Tuesday, Law and the intern (who he now knows to be called Tashigi) bump into each other in the hallway, in a more literal sense. Tashigi’s glasses fall to the floor and her papers are scattered everywhere. Apparently, she can’t see at all without her glasses, because she kneels to the ground and begins patting around on the floor for her frames in the opposite direction to where they’re sitting.

Content to leave her to what she’s doing due to it being rather funny but realizing that it would probably be more polite to assist her in some way regardless, Law kneels down as well and begins collecting the stray papers. He takes his sweet time, occasionally tapping down the stack so it sits straighter, and by the time he’s finished, he hasn’t notice that Tashigi found her glasses about a minute ago and has been staring at him since.

He eventually does turn to Tashigi after all of the papers have been collected, but his expression warps into questioning when he realizes that he’s been being stared at for an indiscriminate amount of time. It’s a short stretch of time before she squeaks, retrieves the papers, stands up, and thanks him (in that order), but it’s enough for Law to become highly unsettled.

Tashigi is already gone when Law finally stands up, but he thinks he knows now why the intern has been following him around.

The next time Law finds himself in the break room together with Tashigi, he decides to confront her.

“Don’t you have something else you need to be doing?” Law asks, and Tashigi damn near hops out of her own skin. After all, this _is_ the first time they’ve actually spoken to eachother, due to Tashigi being a bit skittish and the doctor being more than a bit closed off. For what’s been set as the boundaries of their ‘relationship’ (if it can even be called that) so far, this is extremely abnormal.

“O-Oh, no, I--” the intern splutters, hands shaking hovered over her papers where she’d initially made to take one from the stack. She clears her throat, trying to ground herself. Law doesn’t have all day.

“No, I’m on break right now, actually.”  
“You seem to have an awfully similar schedule to mine, then.” the surgeon comments, only making half an effort to sound offhand. Tashigi jumps again, but it’s less pronounced than when they first began talking, and she regains her composure far more quickly.

“It’s _awfully_ brash of you to imply I’ve been slacking off.” the intern grits out, frustrated, but to her surprise Law only laughs. “That’s not what I’m trying to imply at all. You work on your breaks?”

Tashigi feels suspicious that the isolationist doctor is now suddenly so talkative, but refuses to be shaken and holds her ground. “It’s for school. I’d have no other time to do it.”

“Ah, I see.” Law takes a long sip of his coffee, and doesn’t speak again for long enough that Tashigi has the fleeting, hopeful thought that their conversation is finally over.

And luckily, it is. They don’t meet again for a few days -- apparently Tashigi has been skipping her breaks. Law finds this mildly amusing, and makes no move to track her down. After all, she’s been going out of her way to avoid confrontation with him, hasn’t she?

After a bit of time though, the spell breaks. It’s four AM and Law is getting ready to pack up and head home after his first night shift day in about two months. He hasn’t seen heads or tails of Tashigi all night, not that he expected to, both because she’d been avoiding him for a week and because interns don’t usually work the graveyard shift.

Then he sees Tashigi. Law was just about to open the door to his office when someone else flings the door open for him, panting and black-haired and this time with no papers in her arms. She guards the doorway like a linebacker, spreading her whole body out in it as if afraid that Law would push past her and leave anyway when she’d worked so hard to find him this late at night.

He doesn’t.

“Dr. Trafalgar, I--” blurts Tashigi, who crushes her eyes shut and straightens herself, visibly gathering her own confidence, “I’m in love with you.”

Law doesn’t speak. He doesn’t say anything for a while, actually. He takes his time watching Tashigi, studying her body language, thinking over what she had said and what he had witnessed from her in the time since they’d met.

“Don’t you realize,” Law says, his voice flat, “That if you were to enter a relationship with me, we would both be fired for misconduct?”

Tashigi falters then, a panicked look darting over her face before she hangs her head. Her position that was set in guarding all of the doctor’s escape routes relaxes, and she seems to grow pensive.  
Then, she mumbles, “I don’t care about that.” 

Law’s eyes narrow, and he sets his folder down on his desk.  
“Do you really think that it’s a good idea to abandon your duties in the workforce so early on, Miss Tashigi?” he chastises, “And for something so trivial. Do you not plan to follow a career such as the one you’re training here for later in life? Nurses are not allowed to date doctors. End of discussion.”

“But I--”  
“I am doing you a _favor_ , turning you down tonight.”

It’s the sentiment Law is pushing being expressed in such blunt language that seems to finally put a crack in the intern, and tears well up in her eyes, spilling down over her cheeks.

Now it’s Law’s turn to panic. Unused to witnessing such shows of emotion, he has no idea what to do or how he’s meant to help. So he says something then that he might regret later -- “I’m not interested in women, anyway. This wouldn’t work out, even if we weren’t colleagues.”

For some reason, at that, Tashigi seems to calm down. Something about that makes her come to terms with the fact that nothing would come of her feelings for Law, and maybe even makes her feel like less of an idiot for trying to persue them (even if, Law thinks, she kind of was being an idiot for doing that).

Law, feeling as if he’s on somewhat of a roll, says something he’s never said to anyone before for any reason -- “We could also still be friends, if you’d like.”

Although the doctor is instantly awash with regret for even mentioning that, Tashigi wipes the tears out of her eyes and smiles up at him.  
“I’d like that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh bonney's coming back in a future chapter and also probably tashigi. i love them both  
> in case it never gets directly mentioned in text, my headcanons for bonney and tashigi are that bonney is a lesbian and tashigi is bi. i'm going to try to mention it in text though

**Author's Note:**

> http://prntscr.com/jlu456
> 
> it's been fun writing from law's pov in a fic for once. i've noticed that i typically write my kidlaw fics from kid's pov and that due to the tone of those fics his perspective of law and the way he acts is always slightly skewed (either rose tinted or rage tinted glasses). so it was fun to just write law as law is


End file.
